Wood

I found this old piece of wood at the park down the street where I walk our dog Boomer.  I saw  it laying in a pile of refuse, and felt the need to rescue it and cart it home.  I am attracted  to old wood, as I love the texture and the feel, and I always think I get a sense of the tree from whence it came.  As an example, this piece of wood just seems to exist so simply in a zen sort of way.  Some would just see flaws, and wear, and in this case, a "mistaken cut" someone made.  But I see a proud piece of wood....maybe the last that survived from a grand old tree that once graced this earth. 

I have been thinking of working with wood in a new way.  I realized I have been covering up its worn and aged beauty with mosaics, only letting the sides of the wood show.  Some months back I  took some of my work to a gallery and I received a comment that the substrate of old, thick wood did not make a good marriage with the "tightness" of my mosaic work.  But, I thought to myself, it is the wood that inspires me, it is the wood that is my muse.  Why then, am I covering it up?  I really don't know........